Thursday, May 10, 2007

Facebook + Google Maps = Friend Mashups

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Can't get enough of Facebook? Try something new on Facebook by using these Facebook Google Maps mashups to make your own buddy mapping mashup by plotting your Facebook friends on a map! It takes a few seconds to do and the resulting map shows geographically how near and far your friends really are!

Facebook Friend Mapper - This one is pretty straightforward. Follow the link and login to Facebook. Once you've logged in, friends automatically become mapped for you across a Google Map. The map locations pull from the hometown that your friend has set.

Map Your Buddies - This mashup combines Facebook, Google Maps and Amazon to allow you to map your friends to a Google Map. The Amazon ingredient in this mashup checks out your friend's music interests and suggests a CD from Amazon. Follow the steps at the bottom of the page to get going. This app might expose how few of your friends have music interests set but it does map friends pretty well, especially grouping many in one location.

Facebook UK Friend Plotter - This is a UK specific Facebook friend mapping app that will map where your friends are in the UK. This is great for the UK Facebook crowd, but since I personally hail from Southwestern Ontario, Canada I did expose one flaw in this app. My area of Southern Ontario was settled by the British so all of my Facebook friends are displayed in the locations where these Ontario place names originate in the UK (places like London, Windsor, Blenheim (woo hoo!), Chatham etc..)